Frasch industry

While the new mines increase mid-term supplies, they do not extend industry life. Ceteris paribus, as fuel prices rise, mines with high water ratios are apt to close unless some form of hydrodynamic mining can be introduced (3). If normal depletion curves are used rather than constant production rates, Frasch industry life is extended but at the cost of lower short and mid-term production. 

The ability of the U. S. Frasch industry to fly-wheel domestic supply and demand in the short-run depends on its current inventories and capacity utilization. In the mid-term, mines may be opened or closed based on perceived long-term market equilibria. Longterm, however, in the absence of a significant successful exploration program, Frasch sulfur is a depleting resource. As the peakload, rather than base-load, producer its minimum price is that which will cover the costs of the incremental mine. Its actual price will represent supply-demand equilibrium in world markets. 

Our price forecast for sulfur over the next decade is predicated primarily upon two basic assumptions (1) that the Frasch sulfur producers, although now a less dominant supply source in the North American and world markets, will continue to exert price leadership, especially during periods when a tight supply demand situation exists, such as today, and (2) that the pricing of sulfur in the U.S. will be determined, in large part, by the production economics of the U.S. Frasch industry - that is, the highest cost marginal supplier. 

Therefore, we believe that the cost position of Frasch producers will determine the trend in sulfur prices, so long as the Frasch industry remains the marginal supply source - a condition that will continue over the forecast period. If, at some future date, the supplies of by-product sulfur reach a level which will fully satisfy the demand, this assumption may no longer be valid. 

Following the dramatic decline of north American Frasch mining during the 1990s, global leadership in elemental sulfur output has shifted from the Americas (north America) to the rest of the world (RoW Table 25.2). Substantial shifts occurred within each hemisphere as the Frasch industries in Mexico, the United States, Poland, Eastern... 

Throughout the World War II years, great demands were made on the Frasch industry to supply the war effort with its large productive capacity and substantial reserves of sulfur. After the war ended, Frasch sulfur in Mexico, sour gas sulfur in Canada, France, and the United States, and sulfur from expanded refining of sour crudes challenged successfully the pre-World War II dominance of the U.S. Frasch sulfur producers. 

In 1993 world sulfur production was curtailed. Total Frasch and mined sulfur production was at 6.1 miflion tonnes in 1993 compared with 8 million tonnes in 1992 1751- There was a significant change in the structure of the Frasch industry with low prices forcing a rationalization of production in Mexico and Poland, which also led to production curtailments at some U.S. mines. 

After nearly a century of world dominance in the production of native sulfur, the U.S, Frasch industry shuttered its last mine as a result of low sulfur prices, continually increasing competition from low-cost recovered sulfur producers, escalating production costs, and technical problems. 

Thus, the Frasch Century ended. In the one hundred years of the Frasch industry in the U.S., three hundred and thirty-five million tonnes of sulfur were produced ... 

During the latter 50 s, liquid sulfur became the dominant method to transport sulfur by the U.S. Frasch industry. In 1961, U.S. Bureau of Mines began the Minerals Yearbook with ... 

Recovered sulfur proved to be the downfall of the Mexican Frasch industry as well. In August 1992, APSA declared bankruptcy. The debt of the company was 220 million. APSA closed its three mines in November 1992, and CEDI closed its mine in May 1993. Total sulfur production from the Frasch industry in Mexico was 55 million tonnes (see Table 4.8, and Figure 4.13). The assets of APSA and control of Mexican sulfur exports were assigned to Pemex (becoming their Texistepec Mining Unit) by the Mexican government in lieu of prior sulfur sales owing. Sulfur continued to be produced from their oil refineries at Salina Cruz and Tula. Pemex operates nine sulfiir recovery units, and produces over one million tonnes of recovered sulfur per year. 

There was a revival in Frasch industry of Mexico in 2010. Mexichem S.A.B. reopened the Jaltipan mine (closed in 1992). 

After World War I, pricing was expected to take a big hit, especially after the commissioning of the Big Hill Frasch mine in 1919. Then in 1920, there was a major economic downturn. The Frasch industry faced linaneial ruin. By 1920, sulfur stocks in the U.S. equaled five years supply In the seeond half of 1919, the price had dropped to 15, where it remained until 1926. However, by then the situation had turned around. The 1920 s were boom years, and sulfur demand soared. With increasing demand, the price returned to 18. Global pricing remained... 

The entire Frasch industry would have shut down had there not been record high pricing in the late 1970 s and 1980 s. 

Even after the Frasch patents expired, a monopoly-like situation continued. A virtual monopoly often develops in oligarchic industries, such as the U.S. Frasch industry. While not a full monopoly, the industry can reap the benefits and suffer the shortfalls eommon to this position. Export consortiums are also virtual monopolies, especially with natural monopolies, where a rare resource base is found within a limited region, such as the case of AS SC in Sicily and Sulexco in the U.S. 

Even this industry inevitably succumbed to economic fate. As the sulfur possessions of Sicily had once fallen to the economic competitive onslaught of the Fra-sch process, so too the Frasch industry fell to the economic competitive hordes of recovered sulfur. They first came in the thousands of tonnes, then by the millions. Texas Gulf Sulfur and Freeport Sulfur valiantly fought to the bitter end. When Main Pass closed in 2000, Frasch had finally fallen after a glorious century. 

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